CPAC 2014 Highlights: Making the Case for Liberty
The roster of speakers had important things to say about the future of the nation.
The American Conservative Union hosted the Conservative Action Political Conference (CPAC) in Washington, DC, this past weekend. Here are some highlights from the roster of speakers, in no particular order:
Rand Paul: “Imagine with me for a moment, imagine a time when Liberty is again spread from coast to coast. Imagine a time when our great country is again governed by the Constitution. Imagine a time when the White House is once again occupied by a friend of Liberty. You may think I’m talking about electing Republicans. I’m not. I’m talking about electing lovers of Liberty. It isn’t good enough to pick the lesser of two evils. We must elect men and women of principle, and conviction and action, who will lead us back to greatness. There is a great and tumultuous battle underway for the future, not of the Republican Party but the future of the entire country.”
Rick Perry: “It’s time for a little rebellion on the battlefield of ideas. … I am here today to say, we don’t have to accept recent history. We just need to change the presidency. It’s not too late for America to lead in the world, but it starts by leading at home.”
Bobby Jindal: “I spent a lot of 2012 going around the country saying that President Obama was the most liberal and most incompetent president in my lifetime ever since Jimmy Carter. Now having witnessed the events abroad these last several days: To President Carter, I want to issue a sincere apology. It is no longer fair to say he was the worst president of this great country in my lifetime, President Obama has proven me wrong.”
Mike Lee: “We have concrete, specific proposals to help lower-income families overcome welfare, improve education and job training, and rescue at-risk communities with too few jobs, too few fathers, and too little hope. We have solutions to end cronyist privilege and corporate welfare, to close the Beltway Favor Bank, and put America’s political and corporate elites back to work for the rest of us. And we have introduced legislation to rescue America’s working families from the middle class squeeze. To make it more affordable to raise and educate their kids, and afford health insurance and a home of their own. We have an agenda. And contrary to the Establishment’s advice, we’re not hiding it from the media or the American people, or from you. It’s time for the Republican Party to stop talking about Ronald Reagan and start acting like him.”
Ted Cruz: “You want to lose elections, stand for nothing. … Defend the Constitution – all of it. … We need to repeal every single word of ObamaCare.”
John Bolton: “Our biggest national security crisis is Barack Obama. This is a president that does not believe in American exceptionalism, a president uninterested in national security and America’s place in the world, who considers our strength part of the problem, that we are the cause of international tension. This is like looking at the world through the wrong end of a telescope. But that is Barack Obama’s world.”
Marco Rubio: “There is only one nation on earth capable of rallying and bringing together the free people on this planet to stand up to the spread of totalitarianism. … America must be involved in leading the world.”
Dr. Ben Carson: “[W]e have got to get back to the same mentality that Americans had in the pre- Revolutionary days. They got together with their friends and their neighbors and their associates and they talked about what kind of America do we want to have, what we want to pass onto our children. And they encouraged each other, and that is how a bunch of ragtag militia men defeated the most powerful army in the world at that time. You need to go out and talk to people.”
Sarah Palin: “I love coming back here because there are always so many young people, or as you’re known by the folks across the river, the ObamaCare suckers. … Turns out you have the change they were waiting for – you have the fives, the tens, the twenties.”
The American Conservative Union has the videos here.
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